Zipwhip + Mavenir Partnership Brings RCS to North American Businesses

Zipwhip Partners with Mavenir to Bring RCS to North American Businesses, Integrating Mobile RCS Capabilities with Existing Wireline Business

Zipwhip software provides the first way for businesses to have RCS conversations with consumers using their existing wireline number

SEATTLE & RICHARDSON, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Zipwhip, the original and leading software platform for two-way business texting, and Mavenir, focused on transforming mobile network economics for Communications Service Providers (CSPs), today announced a partnership to bring Rich Communication Services (RCS) to North American businesses, bridging wireless and wireline for the first time.

Zipwhip offers business-texting software and direct mobile-network connectivity, which combined with Mavenir’s carrier-grade RCS platform, reliably delivers RCS enablement to businesses. This move bridges the RCS disconnect between the roughly 200 million business phone numbers and the full base of Android mobile users across North America that will soon have an RCS enabled handset. Since Zipwhip’s software is built on text-enabling existing landline, VoIP and toll-free phone numbers, businesses will automatically begin having richer conversations with customers via the phone number they already use for voice service.

RCS is an enhanced messaging technology that provides deeper interactions than current SMS and MMS capabilities. RCS users will be able to share their location, view typing indicators, receive read receipts, make payments and reply to inline suggested buttons within their native texting app, along with many additional functionalities. These enhanced capabilities will strengthen the already dominant medium of texting throughout North America and is expected to fend off over-the-top (OTT) messaging applications from gaining traction in the business texting space.

Until now, RCS was primarily restricted to peer-to-peer (P2P) communication between mobile users. Today’s announcement means that RCS will be available for high throughput application-to-peer (A2P) communication, allowing consumers to text businesses.

“We are proud to be part of another industry first, bridging the gap in messaging between wireline and wireless,” said Pardeep Kohli, Mavenir’s President and CEO. “The partnership with Zipwhip is natural, as we are both innovators and disruptors that focus on native, open and carrier grade solutions.”

“As pioneers in the business-texting industry, we’re constantly searching for new innovations that can enrich the texting medium,” said John Lauer, CEO of Zipwhip. “Mavenir’s RCS network is a trusted and proven solution in the wireless community, and we’re proud to partner with them. This continued investment in RCS will help bring today’s most advanced messaging technology to North American businesses.”

About Zipwhip

A Seattle-based SaaS company, Zipwhip is modernizing the texting medium by adding text messaging to existing landline, VoIP and toll-free phone numbers. Zipwhip pairs direct network connectivity with easy out-of-the-box software, so businesses of any size can give customers the choice to “text or call” and handle two-way text conversations at scale. Learn more about Zipwhip at www.zipwhip.com.